h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just the conversation you asked for about my project, ideas and suggestions.


When you said abotu free flow, or rule controlled RP, would the rules not just affect how the Game Master replys, rather than how the system works?


So far thoughts are that would need

login(of course)
standard forum

game forum with restriction of how much people can post in each game, such as 1once per round.

the game is then advanced to the next round by the gamemaster when he decides, regardless of if all players replied.

statistics for the characters within each game? if so what would be need for the average game?

virtual dice feature? what differnt types of dice need to be emulated.

what specail things may a game master want to be able to do?

OK mate - time for the essay I think....

Player Characters....

1. Stats

Most stats in common use in games. Physical = Strength, Dexterity, Stamina/Constitution. Mental = Intelligence, Wisdom/Wits. Personal = Charisma.

Vampire we discussed also has Mental = Perception and Personal = Manipulation and Appearance.

Then you have things like armour class (how protected a person is), Hit points (how much damage you can take), ADaD had THAC0 (how easy to hit someone), and so on. Vampire simplified it by saying skill is how easy to hit and everyone can take an equal level of damage. Though a few (very rare) advantages could rise this level by one or two.

With personal characteritics they are there to give a basic definition for the character. So you need an idea of human norm and the maximum you can achieve in whatever form you use for them. ADAD use a number system (orignally 1-25, human norm about 9-11) and vampire use a dot system (1-10 human norm 2-3)...

Skills

Depending on the game style you want is probably going to dictate the skills you offer. Some systems have skill lists covering everything you can possibly do from drinking to talking to shooting etc. Some use general names to cover a range of skills like Larceny (thief skills) or computer use (to cover programming, hacking, using, sending e-mail whatever on a comp) etc. Most rule systems say do not bother to roll skill for mundane tasks like accessing a web page or sending e-mail but always for more complicated things like programming or where something is trying to stop you - eg someone trying to trace a hacker....

Adad uses a d20 plus skill level roll while trying to hit difficulty. Vampire 1 dice per dot for skill and applicable attribute score. Others use percentage systems.

Skill like I said though depend on the setting and style. A medevil based game will not require computer use (unless you have a time travel game with modernday people thrown into the past of course) and you would subsitute firearms for archery for example. Likewise a futuristic setting a character is less likely to have horse riding for example but it is still possible to be learnt and used unless no horses exist then of course.

Dice

A virtual dice system is a good idea. The problem of online roleplaying is the lack of dice. Something used to simulate random chance in RL RP. Afterall sometimes the most skilled person can mess up and even ametaurs get lucky now and again....

However the dice you need depends on the system. Vampire uses D10 (10 sided dice) exclusivly for everything. Skill rolls, attribute checks, damage rolls, etc all on a D10. For example in vampire you have 4 dots in firearms and 3 in dexterity (linked attribute to shooting in the game) you would roll 7 D10's. The target could be 7 as it is a moving target at med range. So you roll 7 dice trying to get as many 7's as possible. 0 success is a failure, 1 success barley made, 3 success equals good solid hit etc. However in vampire a 1 counts against your success and if you get less than 0 success you botch it failing spectaculy.

Freeflow vs Rulebased

Difference between free flow and rules is dramatic and in description and skill of players.

For example we have a fantasy setting and a mage is squaring up against 20 orcs and decides to throw a fireball at them (cheesy example I know)....

Now in freeflow the player chooses size, effect, damage etc.

"Cronus rises his hands in the air and summons forth the elemental forces he is about to unleash by tracing the arcane symbols in the air leaving a firery glow as he focues the anicent forces at his command. He points a single finger at the approaching orcs a smile on his face as fire leaps towards them."

Now at this point in freeflow a character can decide that all the orcs are dead or some are singed while others killed, or it misses or even it fizzes out before getting to them. Anything could happen and is down to the player to decide.

In a rule setting you would have a spell list and the fireball spell could effect a cubed area 60ft by 60ft by 60ft. The GM rules that the orcs are spread 70 feet apart so 15 orcs get hit for 6d6 hit points damage (yes the spell has set damage in rules). So the dice roll and 14 orcs killed, 2 injured and the rest snarling nastily as they charge the hapless mage.

Postings.

Personally I think you should have a post system. MSN style would be quicker and would possibly suit free flow but it would be too complicated with too many people.

Rounds.

Posting 1 per round needs you to define a number of parameters. For example how long is a round. ADaD had 2 ideas. Combat round (about 3-10 seconds) and normal round (about 3-10 mins). Vampire went for scenes and rounds. Scene is basically a scene like from a TV series. The good guy walking in and verbally talking to the bad guy letting him guess if the good guy knows he did it or not and then leaving is a scene. Likewise a mugging is a scene and so on. They used rounds for combat only though no defining length on time. The rest was more freeflow of course with action very focused when it occured.

Of course if you use one post per round per person you can end up with 4 hours of normal game passing in 5 mins and 1 combat taking 3 hours to take place. This is good for hack n slash dungeons but can take the emphasis off Roleplay.

Forum.

This is going to be dictated by setting. White wolf (the company behind vampire) did there own online RP site. They had about 6-7 major settings each with about 10-20 places you could visit in them. A friend of mine is planning to start an RP on here and is thinking of about 7 locations, some very defined others encompassing a lot of area in less detail. The choice is yours.

GMing or DMing - same thing anyway...

Now this is the biggee... The PC's are the stars and the GM is the director. Carrying on this metaphor and all people involved are the cript writers in my opinion.

Now in a rule based system the GM needs to keep track of a fair few things. Expierence for one. A lot of rules use expierence points awarded to characters to simulate good play and learning through well expierence. This allows you to advance your character up levels or become better at skills in the game. Free flow RP has no basis for this as most of the time character skills are given scores so no need for it.

A DM also sets the scene, describing what is there, what is spotted creating a good mental image of the area the PC's are in. He also sets up storylines (to begin with) and sends adversaries to oppose the players.

A DM must also act as a arbitritor in disputes over rules (yes there are many) and grey areas / conflicting rules (and yes there are usually many of these too ).

A DM must also work out how successful PC plans are when they try to implement them. You need to look at what will happen, loop holes, mistakes etc and rate there chances accordingly.

The DM basically facilitates the way for the PC's to look great so a good challenge not too easy and not too hard is good.

Oh and a DM can be fun as it is always great to sit back and see a flummoxed player trying to think of a why out of the mess they are in...

A DM must also be prepared to have an idea and direction for the game that can change with the players actions or still keep on direction if they move away from the story line... However some of the best games are where the PC's are now the movers and shakers and they are creating the storylines. But they are also the hardest to run.

For what a GM can do depends all on the system you use mate.

And finally.

Time to give my fingers a rest now mate but before I do can I just say that a lot of enjoyment comes from the PC's and there attitude and behaviour. This is a group thing so constantly negative people are a downer on it. Some players want all the DM's attention and others have mad grandiose plans they can never pull off. It is all a case of keeping control as a GM and being diplomatic in some cases... Remember it is a game, it is meant to be fun and whatever system you use it is there to help facilitate that fun not the be all and end all to it. That is the DM and players....

I was going to do a Forum based system all along.

I have spoken to Acidoveride about the thing because my intention was making something that would have made his job easier when he did a cool RP on hootoo. That was fun, though had a few problems because people simulposted and posted after he said stop etc.

damn didn't mean to hit post.


the whole idea is to leave the DM and PC incontrol of their game, but to give them all the tools to be able to play effectively over the net.

excatly... so I hope that helps on suggestions and ideas and do you see the difference between freeflow and rule base?

Yeah i see the differnce between free flow and rule based systems. I think my system would allow for both types of games to be played. Though the limit to some things would be waht stats are avalible in each game,though at somepoint this may be editable so that the stats avalible in each game are decided when it is created. i htink that would be a long term feature to leave until i have the rest of it working.

I am jsut finishing up extracting the feature wish list and what i am prepared to try and tinker with from Acid's conversation. once i have done that i will take note of the things through yours.

no worries mate - I just hope it helps... any other questions just ask me...

also I would say that have changable feature would be useful for stats unless you fancy working on your own generic rp system... very hard that is....

Though you can also make packages for rule systems.. for example have a vampire package, D20 (3rd ed DaD) package, rifts package and so on....

Feature/wish list extracted from conversations with both Flamestrike and Acidoveride, with a few ideas that came as i wrote it added.


Forum based posting system (always was)

Theard would be a game.

No limit to postings per round. Though the DM can enforce in his replies only 1 action per round.

DM (Dungeon master) can block further posting to game to allow him to respond.
DM can set an automatic time limit at which to block further posting

Player stats editable by the DM to keep track of the game

(Physical = Strength, Dexterity, Stamina/Constitution. Mental = Intelligence, Wisdom/Wits. Personal = Charisma, HP, Armour, skills?, experience?)
Perhaps have no set stats, stats created at the beginning of a game, or have stats used selectable from a list of types or RP.

Virtual dice to aid the DM (list of possible dice that can be used across a number of games, not all need used in a game)

Player inventory – for use when DM says players can only carry so many items.

List of online players/players in current game
-click to take up stats?

Public/private posting – allowing private messages between DM and players. Also player-player (viewable by the DM)
At the end of the game the DM can make all these private conversations visible.

Linkable image area?

NPC statistics table for DM to aid keeping track. – what it is/type/animal, HP.


character sheets?- controlled by DM


what is actully held on a character sheet? and how constant is it between games.

Character sheet is the all the info on paper of a character. The stats, xp, hp, current totals, treasure, equipment etc...

so anything that pertains to that character is on the sheet... the sheet is the skeleton of the character - the pc fleshes it out through RP...

Oh and Dice commonly used in RP games

D3
D4
D6
D8
D10
D12
D20
D100

Player inventory can use either a weight or number system... e.g. you can carry 20 small items or you are so strong so can carry 200 pounds maximum...

so character sheet is basically all the sepearte things suggested in one?

Can do it so that things individually view able, or veiwed all at the same time as one character sheet.

Yes a character sheet is your reference to the character... everything you need to know that are the bare bones of it...

Take a look at wizard of the coast website / White wolf website / palladium website for some designs of this sheet and info on it... some are better than others...

Oh I saw your other convo with acid - some good ideas there too...